Posted
by
samzenpus
on Monday January 21, 2013 @12:13PM
from the take-it-all dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Forbes analyst Adam Hartung has predicted that Microsoft will sell off its entertainment division, which includes Xbox, in the coming years. He even goes so far as to list Sony or Barnes & Noble as potential buyers. Lets forget how crazy this sounds for a moment and focus on the reasons why Hartung believes such a sale will happen. It basically comes down to Windows 8, and how poorly it is selling. Combine that with falling sales of PCs, the Surface RT tablet not doing so great, the era of more than one PC in the home disappearing, and Microsoft has a big problem. The problem not only stems from the PC market not growing, but because Microsoft relies so heavily on Windows and Office for revenue. With that in mind, Hartung believes Steve Ballmer will do anything and everything to save Windows, including ditching entertainment and therefore Xbox."

Microsoft has being playing this insane whack-a-mole strategy of jumping into any industry they see a potential new tech giant emerging. I wouldn't consider it a terrible strategy except for the way they make it so obvious that all they want to do is contest every layup; and when they've vanquished an opponent they all but quit (see how Window Mobile imploded).

Of course, that strategy only works so long as you're so flush with cash you can throw billions at all kinds of ventures and not need to worry about the outcome.

In January of 2011 they were making 1 billion/year profit. Not too shabby. That's just for the Xbox/gaming division. The online division (whatever that includes) was still a money pit at that time but the Xbox has been turning a profit for some time now.